Electricity and Control March 2016

HAZARDOUS AREAS + SAFETY

Utilising hazard studies in plant safety

Willie Coetzee, Auctus Holdings and Chris Potgieter, BFluor Chemicals

Hydrofluoric acid plant (major hazardous installation) in Runcorn, United Kingdom.

The benefits of hazard studies can be realised in existing plants when process modifications are contemplated.

H azard studies are useful tools in the design of safe and operable processing plants. More often than not the information from a Hazard study never reaches operational and maintenance personnel and subsequently understanding of design rationale is typically not transferred to these colleagues. Apart from using the hazard studies to identify and mitigate risks, the information originating from the hazard studies can therefore be used as the basis of further and new training requirements for operator skills development and plant safety training. These inputs should also be incorporated into all of the engineering information, including PFDs, P&IDs,

operating instructions, etc. to ensure that the end user of the facility has all the information required to operate the facility safely in a structured and understand- able format.

In order to fully utilise the information and know-how originating from hazard studies, this information should be readily accessible and easy to understand. Advanced HAZOP tools can be used to

create simple, structured and easily trans- ferable reports and information summaries that ultimately empowers facility operations and maintenance personnel to maintain a safe working environment. By implementing HAZOP software reports can be optimised to keep record of

Electricity+Control March ‘16

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